Autumn Hits Florida And My Front Door Too!

 You guys in the north got it made.  Yep. That's right. I have sat back and read your blogs about the cooler temps and the special little 'snap' in the air invading your regions. Meanwhile, living in South Florida, we are still talking hot!  No 'snap' here, but the snapping of my fingers as I call my doggies in from the backyard from the coolness of my air conditioned home.  (I often wonder how people lived here back before air conditioning.)

Don't feel too sorry for me though.  I'm a native to this area, so cooling temps don't mean seasonal changes for me. The wind and the change in the direction of the sun against my house spell seasonal change.  The winds shift off the ocean during this time coming from the northeast and the sun shifts and starts to bake the opposite side of my house.  This is when it is time to get the autumn decorations out and start the enjoy the breezes.

Before

I finished my front door Florida Autumn update and wanted to give you a little peek at the results.  I try to make these transitions simple.  Not looking for extra work or projects for this type of thing.  I also don't want to change some of the Florida elements, like the Adirondack chair, or the garden elements.  So here is what my front door area looked like before I got started.

I showed you the wreath that I put on my front door last week in my blog post, September And My New Front Door Wreath.  Using the colors in the wreath, I set out to find a fresh door mat and some fabric to recover the pillow on the Adirondack chair.  I also wanted to pick up some fresh plants for my three tiered planter and large pot to the left of the door.  I was thinking yellows and oranges.  I was also thinking, "What's gonna make it in the 'horrible where-the-heck-are-the-cooler-temperatures Florida heat' over the next two months?!"

I found the perfect fabric, totally color matching the wreath, on sale at Joann's and decided to buy enough to do my favorite kind of pillow cover that I call The Envelop Wrap.  Why my fav?  Well, it's no sew, quick and easy.

I place the pillow on top of the fabric laying wrong side up on the floor on the diagonal.  In other words, the fabric is in like a diamond and the pillow is a square on top of the diamond.  Hopefully you get this, because I didn't take pics of that part.  Then I just bring the four corners of the fabric up to the center front of the pillow, tied them together and tuck the ends inside the folds of the fabric.  I finished off the pillow with a raffia bow.  Done, perfect.  This pillow sees another two months of use on my front door area with very little effort. 

My three tiered planter with water-garden is in pretty good shape.  It's been hot here, but we have had a lot of rain this summer, so things are pretty green.  The middle tier was a little leggy due to the amount of rain, so I decided just to pop a few little, inexpensive beach daisy plants to add a little yellow.

The big pot to the left of my door has Purslane spilling over the side and has gotten a little leggy. But, I kinda like the look and the deep autumn burgundy of the stems actually highlight the burgundy sunflowers in the wreath at the door.  Happy accident!  I just needed a little sprucing and while at AC Moore, I noticed this neat grapevine cone/cloche and grabbed it up with this harvest pumpkin sign and a little orange accent bough.  Added it to the mix, and helped the Purslane and Lariope plants to merge from the confines of the cone. 

The front door mat and the fresh house flag greet anyone who visits.  I popped a little black grapevine pumpkin down on the arm of the Adirondack chair.  I realize that it isn't October and I am not wanting to bring out Halloween yet, but I liked it there.  So it stays.

In a pretty short time, with very little money spent, I have a nice autumn themed front door area.  A little 'change of seasons' Florida-style. 

-The End-
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